


Empty Seat

by Samsara



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: F/M, Gen, One Shot, aone is worried about no one sitting next to him on the bus or train, so here's someone who isn't scared of him sitting next to him
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-06-08
Updated: 2014-06-08
Packaged: 2018-02-03 22:53:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,219
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1758991
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Samsara/pseuds/Samsara
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>She smiles at him every day, she doesn't care how scary he looks.<br/>He wants to smile back, but he knows he looks pretty threatening.<br/>She's 156cm tall, and he's never faced a more terrifying wall.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Empty Seat

There she was again.

  
It wasn’t a Datekou uniform she wore, it was another school – he had no idea which. But it had to be relatively local if she was on this line.

She would get on the train two stops after him, and each day, she offered him a smile. Sometimes a wave also.  
  
She didn’t pay any mind to the thick scowl that always seemed to be present on his face. She looked past it.  
  
She would always offer him a smile, even on the most sour of days.  
  
Despite there always being an open seat next to him, she never took it. She always slipped off to the other end of the car, ear buds in, music rippling from them as she passed him. He’d follow her with his gaze, just for a moment, eyes never drooping lower to where they ought to be, and like that, she was gone to the back of the car.  
  
He never got to see what stop she got off at. She was always still in the back when he disembarked for Datekou. He’d look back to see where she was. On occasion she’d catch his eye and wave, but more often than most, chin rested in her hand as she looked out the window, seemingly disinterested in her surroundings.  
  


He only saw her in the mornings. She was never on the train home after practice so he assumed she was either not part of a club at her school, or hers ended much earlier than his. Not surprising given how late Datekou’s volleyball team played. Maybe she played volleyball too, the girls division obviously. Maybe he had met her during one of the tournaments and she remembered him but he couldn’t recall who she was. It seemed unlikely. He spoke so rarely, even to his own teammates.  
  
Despite being particularly silent, he was able to express his concerns (albeit with very few words) to Futakuchi. Typically the type to keep him in check at matches, he was probably the best person to discuss this with. There was a girl. She smiles at him. He wants to talk to her.  
  
“Why not just smile back?”  
  
Simple answer, when he smiled he looked terrifying and scaring her away was the last thing he wanted to do. She didn’t even go to Datekou so how was he supposed to do something without seeming as if he were a giant menace with intent to hurt her?  
  
“You said she waves sometimes, right? Next time she waves, wave to her too. Girls like being acknowledged.”  
  
He wasn’t the best with girls, but Futakuchi gave better advice than anyone else had. It was easy. Wave. Don’t smile, don’t be threatening. Just wave.  
  
He couldn’t do it. Even though he saw her every morning, he couldn’t do it. Here he was, standing at just under 192cm, weighing at over 88kg, and he couldn’t bring himself to speak to a petite, 156cm girl from another school, even though she would smile at him every day. Here he was, a living and breathing wall, and he was crumbling at the mere idea of saying hello to this girl. Had she been an opponent in a match, he’d be worthless. Aone Takanobu was many things. He was strong, he was powerful, he was menacing.  
  
He was also afraid of talking to girls.  
  
And then his opportunity came. He hadn’t even noticed it was her stop when loafers with small leather flower shapes on the belt came on to the train. She was out of breath today, likely having run late to catch the train this time, dark hair, normally pulled up into a tight bun on the top of her head was loosely tied over her shoulder with a ribbon. Her chest was heaving – she was not the athletic sort at all – and she was rummaging through a bag for something.  
  
Water. She needed a drink. And he was on his feet, hands having dove into his practice bag for a bottle, and he was offering it to her. No words, just the gesture.  
  
And she smiled and took the drink gratefully.  
  
And for the first time, she spoke to him.  
  
“Thank you, but what am I supposed to do with talcum powder?”  
  
What did he do? What does one do when then mess something up like that? As if acting on instinct, he reached back into his gym bag, making sure he had grasped a bottle of water and switched them out feeling heat rushing to his face. What a blunder, there are thousands of other ways someone could mess up but this was on par with humiliation.  
  
“Thank you,” she said again, a nod coming from him as he sat back down, waiting for her to assume her seat at the back of the car.  
  
Before him stood a wall. A 156cm wall that made him feel as if he was the tiniest thing on the planet. Despite it all, this wall was the most formidable thing to ever stand before him.  
  
“Can I sit here?” she asked, leaning forward a bit. “It gets boring sitting in the back by myself.”  
  
He nodded, feeling what he hoped wasn’t a smile forming on his face. He couldn’t smile at her yet. Not when she had just taken a seat next to him.  
  
“So you go to Datekou, right?” A nod. “I don’t go to a regular high school – it’s a Cosmetology school a few stops after yours.” So that where she went. “Do you play sports? I always see you with that gym bag – what sport do you play?”  
  
She was expecting him to speak, so he swallowed, trying to clear his throat for her. “Volleyball.” He said in a low croak, hardly audible as if afraid he might scream the word at her. Her face lit up, fingers clutching the fabric of her skirt.  
  
“That’s so cool! My little brother plays in junior high school right now! I don’t know much about it, but it’s fun to watch! I think he said he’s a middle blocker? What about you?”  
  
He couldn’t let himself smile yet. She knew a bit about the very sport he played. It was nice to hear. “Me too.” He spoke quietly, watching as her face grew bright again.  
  
“No way!” She suddenly stopped, and he saw how her face became quickly washed out, and then grew flushed. “I’m so sorry, I haven’t introduced myself! I’m Fujisaki Rumi.”  
“Aone Takanobu.” He replied quietly – and there was the smile.  
  
It wasn’t nearly as fearsome as he had thought it would be. It was soft. It didn’t give off the air of a menace. It actually felt natural.  
  
And Rumi was laughing. “You don’t have eyebrows, I just noticed.” Quickly his gaze turned away, only for eyes to glance back at her quickly as she pulled what looked to be a crayon from her bag. “Here look at me, and keep smiling!”  
  
She reached towards him with the crayon causing him to pull back momentarily but she only briefly ran the crayon over his eyes and opened up a compact mirror and showed him.  
“There, now I can see that you’re happy now that you’ve got eyebrows!” she said, smiling herself.  
  
And Aone began to laugh.


End file.
